Something to think about

Joseph A. Komonchak March 15, 2013 - 2:43pm

You who stand in the Lords house, praise the name of the Lord (Ps 134[135], 2). Be grateful. You used to be outside, now you are inside. Is it some slight thing, that you stand where he is to be praised who raised you when you lay prostrate and made you to stand in his house and to confess him and to praise him? Is it a slight benefit that we stand in the Lords house? Here, in this meanwhile, in this wandering, in this house, which is also called a wanderers tent, that we stand here: is this a minor cause for our thanksgiving? Shouldnt we think about this--that we are standing here? Shouldnt we think about what we had become? Shouldnt we think about where we were lying and to where we have now been gathered? Shouldnt we think about the fact that all the wicked were not seeking the Lord, and he himself sought those not seeking him, that when he found them he awakened them, and when he awakened them he called them, and when he called them he brought them in and made them to stand in his house. Anyone who thinks about these things and is not ungrateful for them will scorn himself out of love for his Lord by whom such great things were given him, and because he has nothing that he can return to the Lord for such great blessings, what can he do except give thanks, not try to repay? It is part of that thanksgiving to take the chalice of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. For what can a servant return to the Lord for all the things he have given him (Ps 115:12-13)? And so, you who stand in the Lords house, in the courts of our Gods house, praise the Lord (Augustine, In Ps 134, 2; PL 37:1739).